the difficulty i think for america is afghanistan hasn't been stable since, i guess, hannibal. (laughter) so the idea that we could stay there... (laughter). they don't appear to want to be stabilized so i mean... i guess the problem is can we really do that? can we do that for a country and is pakistan going to give them the room that they would need to do that or would they perhaps try and have some influence with the taliban adds well? >> well, first of all, i think afghanistan was stable since centuries. >> jon: well, obviously i was being humerus. (laughter) ... humorous. >> they had an agreement. the ethnic groups decided to stay together under the monarchy. the problems started 1979 when the monarch was... when the king was deposed and that's where this... where the war that they had, that glue that held them together was no more than there and the trouble started when the soviets came in. so that's what we're trying to repair now. and, indeed, they are not a country which can have democracy as enough the united states but they have to have their own form of democracy ta